Scars of Victory: Temper, Temper
by Higuchimon
Summary: It's been seven years since the Digimon Kaiser's conquest of the Digital World and defeat of the Chosen fighting him. Those who fought the first fight have not forgotten, however. They say revenge is best served cold. Seven years of cooling is about to come crashing down. [complete]
1. Chapter 1

**Serues Title:** Scars of Victory|| **Story Title:** Temper, Temper  
 **Characters:** Chosen Children|| **Relationship:** N/A (small hints of possible future Taichi x Yamato)  
 **Chapter Word Count:** 1,563|| **Story Word Count:** 1,563|| **Chapter Count:** 1/3  
 **Genre:** Drama|| **Rated:** PG-13  
 **Challenge:** Diversity Writing, G23, fic that is T rated; Word Count Set Boot Camp, #33, 4,692 words; Include The Word Boot Camp, #9, volcano; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #39, 3 chapters; Update The Old Stuff Bingo, #6, Scars of Victory  
 **Notes:** If you haven't yet, I suggest reading the first three Scars of Victory stories to get an idea of what's been going on. Be warned of off-screen character death and mind control.  
 **Summary:** It's been seven years since the Digimon Kaiser's conquest of the Digital World and defeat of the Chosen fighting him. Those who fought the first fight have not forgotten, however. They say revenge is best served cold. Seven years of cooling is about to come crashing down.

* * *

Yamato tried not to think about the mountain of homework that awaited him. In the long run, he hadn't yet convinced himself that it really mattered a lot. He'd wanted it to matter, once. He'd thought it mattered, once.

Then _that_ happened and it took him years to decide if anything would ever matter again.

But right now, he couldn't really think of a reason to do it that wasn't 'I was assigned it and I need to do it'. He'd work his way around to it, sooner or later, but that wasn't now, and right now he didn't have anything else to do. Time hung on his hands on days like today, when the sun sparkled overhead in a cloudless blue sky and he could hear kids laughing and playing in a nearby park.

He steeled himself for the strike of grief and was more than a little surprised when it didn't come. He didn't think he was 'getting better', since this wasn't something that could get better _from_. But it was different. He thought maybe he could handle different.

For a while, at least.

Closing his eyes, he wondered if he could rest for a little while. Maybe once he got through a nap, he could look at all of his unfinished work and think about doing it with a little more seriousness.

He kind of doubted it, but maybe it was worth a try. He needed to do something and a nap was as good as anything else.

His D-Terminal beeped. He ignored it. He knew who it wouldn't be, who it couldn't be, and whatever else anyone had to say wasn't something he wanted to look at right now. It was probably just Mimi, anyway, telling them when her flight would be in. Sora could probably go pick her up. That was good enough.

He settled himself on his sofa more comfortably and let himself drift away. He hoped he wouldn't have nightmares this time. They'd lessened over the years but every now and then they sparked up as if it were That Day all over again.

It looked like this was going to be one of those times.

He slid into the dark waters of sleep and he was fourteen again, fourteen and he was immortal, they were all immortal, and fighting a war they didn't even understand.

* * *

Koushirou kept them advised on what was going on in the Digital World. Their new friends, and Takeru and Hikari, fought this new Digimon Kaiser, Ichijouji Ken, and the worst anyone ever came back with was a few bruises and scrapes, and maybe a bad dream or two. Yamato hadn't ever asked, but he kinda had the idea that Daisuke had a few nightmares after finding out the Kaiser and Ichijouji were the same person.

But none of them felt the burning need to go to the Digital World on a regular basis with them. It wouldn't do much good, since they couldn't properly evolve unless one of those towers got brought down. Which the new kids did with enthusiastic frequency, in fairness. Nothing very important had happened since that entire mess with Agumon and the Kaiser inventing Evil Spirals. They knew he had to be up to something but what it was, no one could offer any hard guesses on.

So when his D-Terminal began beeping during band practice, Yamato's only thought was that the Kaiser had made his move at long last. He expected word of a battle. He expected a request for help of some kind, if it were really bad.

What he didn't expect was what he read.

 _Come help! Kaiser's throwing everything he's got at us!_

It was from his brother.

It was the last thing Takeru sent. It was the last thing any of them sent.

"One of those towers was in this canyon," Koushirou told the six of them, gathered together in his room. Taichi sat next to Yamato, both of them far more stunned than they could've possibly let on. Yamato had no idea of what to think. He more or less thought he'd forgotten how to think. "It had two side tunnels a few days ago, but it looks like the Kaiser cut those off as soon as the battle started."

His eyes, as tear-reddened as the rest of theirs, shifted from one of them to the other. "He planned this. This wasn't an accident."

Taichi's voice broke the silence that followed. "How soon can you get a gate open to get us in there?"

"Are they all… all…?" Mimi's words failed her and Sora wrapped an arm around her, doing her best to soothe her, and not having much success. None of them had much success with anything right now.

"To answer Mimi first, as far as I can tell. The signals from their D-3s … they started to fail not that long after Takeru-kun's message." Koushirou fiddled with a pen, not meeting Yamato's eyes, or anyone else's. "Daisuke was the last one."

Taichi grated out his question. "How soon can you get a gate open?"

"I can't." Koushirou kept looking down at the pen in his hands. "I'm still working on it. I might be able to later, but right now? There's something blocking the way and I don't know what it is. It could be the Kaiser. It could be whatever prevents our Digivices from creating gates, as opposed to their D-3s. I'm trying to get in touch with Gennai, but I haven't heard back from him."

Taichi's hands balled up and he slammed one fist into the wall, sending a few stray pieces of paper floating. Yamato caught his wrist before he could do it again.

"The wall didn't do anything."

"Yeah, I know. It's going to have to fill in until I can get my hands on Ichijouji." Taichi all but snarled the words out before he snapped his attention towards Koushirou again. "Can you at least get in touch with Agumon or one of the others?"

"I'll do my best. Communication doesn't especially _appear_ to be down, but it depends on if they're anywhere near a gate and if I can get their attention." Koushirou looked back at his laptop. "I'm surprised I was even able to get this map up here. Everything seemed to be connected to the school computer, but I was trying to get some work done here, and it just showed up. I wonder if it's Gennai trying to help somehow."

Another silence fell. Yamato couldn't think of what could fill it. He couldn't imagine a world that didn't have Takeru in it, and he was pretty sure that Taichi felt the same way about Hikari. How could it happen like this? How could some _kid_ do all of this? How could he just… order Digimon to kill people and not _care_?

 _We have to stop him. I don't know how. But we have to._ Somehow they had to do what the people who could have their partners evolve couldn't. The Digital World needed them again, and as his attention moved from one to the other of his friends, he knew that they felt the same way about it that he did.

* * *

It wasn't that easy. It could never have been that easy, especially not after four people died. Plans had to be made. People had to be told.

Such as their parents.

Yamato hadn't felt close to his mother in a long time. Seeing her sitting next to his father, both of them pale as ice, didn't help at all. Hearing the words fall from his lips made it all feel real in a way that he didn't want.

The world didn't seem all that inclined to give him anything he wanted anymore. Koushirou still hadn't been able to get in touch with any of their partners or any of the stray Digimon they knew. More and more it seemed as if the small television-like gates didn't exist in the numbers they had before.

It was Sora who came up with the conclusion they suspected was the right one.

"The Kaiser's destroying them. He knows we'll come if we can, so he's making sure that we can't."

Taichi slammed his hand into a wall again. He'd done it so much when Yamato wasn't around that his knuckles existed in a constant state of bruised and battered. "So now what do we do?"

"The same thing we've been doing. I'm going to keep trying to find a way to open a gate, get in touch with Gennai, and get us over there." Koushirou didn't lift his eyes from his laptop. "I don't care how long it takes me. We're going to do it."

* * *

Yamato's eyes fluttered. Had he heard something? He started to go back to sleep when a very familiar voice came from the other side of his apartment door.

"Yamato, if you don't open this door, I'm going to knock it down! Get your stuff together! We're going!"

 _Taichi?_ Yamato blinked, trying to get his brain working again, and got to his feet. "Going?" He hurried over to open the door, staring into a pair of furious brown eyes.

Furious, beautiful, and far more alive than they'd been for the last few years. Taichi grinned maniacally at him.

"Koushirou got a gate open. We're going to the Digital World."

 **To Be Continued**

 **Notes:** Trust me, it won't be as easy as walking back into the Digital World and their partners are there with party hats. As stated in **Interruptions & Annoyances** the Kaiser is very aware of their attempts to get through.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Word Count:** 1,641|| **Story Word Count:** 3,204|| **Chapter Count:** 2/3

* * *

Searing heat of a volcano coursed through Yamato's veins at Taichi's words. He grabbed onto the brunet's arms and stared at him, heart pounding, mind racing.

"Did you say what I think you said?"

Seven years. Seven _long and painful_ years with not a single word from any Digimon or Gennai or anyone. Not even the Kaiser contacted them to gloat over what he'd done. If it hadn't been for their Digivices and Koushirou's constant work to break the gate barrier, Yamato wouldn't have been surprised if they had begun to think it all some kind of weird dream, mourned their dead, and struggled to move on.

What kind of a memorial for Takeru would _that_ have been, he wondered?

But now Taichi looked back at him and shoved him away, a wild grin all of his face. Not the expression of someone who hoped to see someone long gone, but someone who wanted to gain the bloodiest revenge that they could.

Normally Yamato would've discouraged that in Taichi. Right now, with hope he'd never imagined now hanging in his reach, he suspected that they'd be more likely to do it together.

"He got in this morning. He's been working to make sure it's stable, and as far as he can tell, it is. It might not stay that way. We might not be able to get back until we can take down whatever's blocking it from in there." The lash of the smile across Taichi's lips promised pain. "But we can get there now. We can _do it_ , Yamato!" Now his hands gripped onto Yamato's shoulders. "Get your things. The others are already coming."

Of course they were. Everyone wanted to go there and help. It was what they _did_.

He burst into a frenzy of activity once Taichi let him go, grabbing his travel bag and throwing a few clothes in there – he wasn't eleven anymore, he knew the importance of clean laundry – and a few other odds and ends he'd accumulated over the years in anticipation of a day he'd half-convinced himself wouldn't ever come.

When he looked back at the door, Taichi still stood there, his own bag over one shoulder now. He hadn't lost a shred of the savagery written across his features.

"Let's go," was all he said, and Yamato fell into step next to him.

* * *

Koushirou's apartment was of respectable size: if you took out all the computer gear he'd stocked it with over the last seven years. With all of that gear in there, there was barely enough room for a handful of people to stand, let alone nearly two handfuls.

Taichi and Yamato were the last ones to arrive. Koushirou lived there, of course, as did Jou – Jou was often the only reason that Koushirou ate, drank, and slept, and sometimes even he couldn't get the redhead to manage that.

Mimi and Sora sat on the narrow couch, Sora's arms wrapped comfortably around Mimi. Jou moved around the apartment, packing up two bags, one of clothes and one of medical gear of every time Yamato thought could be made portable and some that couldn't be.

Jou wasn't a fully licensed doctor yet, but that was more because he hadn't had the time than anything else. He'd most certainly done everything he could to learn what was necessary.

Sometimes Yamato wondered how they'd survived that first trip to the Digital World. As much as they'd fallen from high places, fallen into rivers, had no idea of where they were going or what they were doing, they probably should have.

He knew where that thought was going and shoved it out of the way as he and Taichi came over to where Koushirou worked on his computer.

"How much longer?" Yamato wanted to know.

"It depends on when all of you are going to be ready. I'm almost certain that it will close down after we go through." Koushirou looked up at them all, his eyes painted with weariness and hints of pride in his success. "I've set up an e-mail to go to all of our parents and to our respective universities. Since we have no way of knowing how long this will take, our parents will know where we've gone and what we intend to do. They'll be able to get in touch with the universities as well and make certain that if we're not back within a month's time, we're unenrolled."

Jou fidgeted a little at that, but before he could say anythng else, Koushirou kept going. "It's for the best. It's not impossible that the gates end up sealed permanently while we're on the other side."

Yamato threw himself down on the little bit of free space on the couch, nodding at Sora and Mimi. He started to say something himself, when another set of footsteps sounded.

They shouldn't have; he could see everyone who'd be going with them. But Mimi turned toward the sound and smiled as Michael entered the room.

Yamato hadn't seen him all that often over the years, but he knew he and Mimi kept in touch. And that he had a partner Digimon just like they did. He wasn't an actual _Chosen_ , but he was still one of them.

"What're you doing here?" Taichi asked, lifting his eyes from Koushirou and his work long enough to see who it was.

"Because I'm going with you. I haven't seen Betamon in as long as you haven't seen _your_ partners, and I want to help stop the Kaiser." Michael's fingers flexed. "I couldn't help last time, but maybe now...maybe we can all get this fixed."

"Fixing isn't that easy," Taichi said, gaze drifting back to Koushirou and his flying fingers. "And some things can't be fixed."

Yamato wasn't going to argue on either side. If Michael wanted to come, that was one more person who could lend them a hand. Even giving the Kaiser a setback had been hard enough seven years earlier. With all this time to do anything he wanted and no one to stop him, this would be even harder.

Koushirou stood up without warning. "All right. I've put everything that I can into place and the gate is open: for now. I haven't been able to get a view of where the gate is, so we're going to have to be careful. Anything could happen."

Taichi was on his feet a breath later. "I don't care."

"Neither do I," Yamato said, joining Taichi as they moved toward the computer.

Seven Digivices in seven hands, hands larger and stronger and older than the last time they'd done this. Seven voices, steel-hard and ready to fight no matter what.

* * *

Crossing the gate hadn't changed a bit. Yamato didn't recognize where they landed: a small thicket of trees, with the television buried underneath a thick coating of vines and saplings.

The fact he'd landed on his head, with Taichi entangled around him, didn't help him to recognize any of it. As soon as he could get his head together, he wriggled up to his feet and moved away, the others following suit.

"It looks so much the same," Mimi whispered, looking from one side to the other. "What's he been doing?"

No one could hazard a guess. Yamato didn't even want to try. He moved forward carefully.

"We need to find our partners. Or someone who could at least tell us what's been going on," Jou said. "Information is what we need the most right now."

A tentative thought occurred and Yamato checked his Digivice. Part of him wanted to see what it hadn't seen in years: the tell-tale signs of D-3s. But again, nothing.

"Let's get out to where we can move around," Sora suggested. "We can't see anything from in here."

Carefully they did so, keeping close to the thick woods, just in case anything happened.

The fact that nothing did happen kept them all on nervous harpstrings the longer they walked along. Yamato looked in all directions, wary of anything that even looked like it was moving.

"Did you see that?" Taichi asked, keeping his voice low. Yamato nodded. He didn't like what he saw, but he saw it all the same.

"Those looked like Geckomon," he whispered. "But I couldn't tell if they had any of those Evil Rings on."

Mimi drew in a quick breath and Yamato knew she was going to yell something. Sora grabbed her arm before the words could come out.

"They're probably under the Kaiser's control. Even if we can't see a Ring on them."

"But they're my _friends_!" Mimi protested, keeping her voice down but harsher with protest.

"Actually, they're _my_ friends. Or my slaves, I should say." A voice spoke from above, not quite the same as they'd last heard it, but familiar all the same. All seven heads jerked up as if on the same string.

There, on an AirDramon, stood the Digimon Kaiser. His uniform wasn't the same as they remembered, looking more like a formal suit with a cape attached. His visor remained the same, as did the glittering violet eyes behind them, and he sneered down at them.

"You couldn't leave well enough alone, could you? I made this world mine once and for all, and you had to break in here and try to disturb everything that I've made."

Taichi's hands clenched and unclenched. "You killed my sister!"

"I think it was a Monochoromon who did that," the Kaiser replied with a sardonic smirk. "But now I'm going to see to it that the same thing happens to all of you."

He raised one hand and snapped his fingers, and the sound of pounding feet arose above all else.

Greymon.

Garurumon.

Kabuterimon.

Ikkakumon.

Birdramon.

Togemon.

Each and every one of them with an Evil Spiral. Kaiser smiled.

"Dispose of them."

 **To Be Continued**

 **Notes:** I told you he knew they were coming.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Word Count:** 1,488|| **Story Word Count:** 4,692|| **Chapter Count:** 3/3

* * *

They ran.

What else could they do? Their partners were the ones attacking them. They didn't have any way to break the control the Kaiser had. Being furious wasn't going to do _anything_.

So they ran. Ran for their lives, and there wasn't a one of them, burning with rage or not, who didn't wonder if they'd face the same fate that their younger friends had seven years earlier.

Yamato could still hear the Kaiser's raucous laughter, even as he stumbled and searched for a place he could conceal himself until something else could happen. Some way to stop all of this and reset it. His breath caught in his lungs and far too soon a stitch burned in his side and he couldn't hear anything coming after him.

Which made him all the more terrified, because he _knew_ Garurumon and he knew that his partner was a silent hunter.

If he didn't hear him, there was a good chance Garurumon remained right on his track.

 _We never talked about what could happen if any of them were under Kaiser's control again. We should have._ In the days after they'd freed Agumon, they'd all just been too happy that it happened in the first place. They should've thought about what could happen. They should've made plans.

But they hadn't and now Yamato could see how foolish they'd been as children. They'd treated this whole thing like more of a game than the Kaiser had. He at least wanted to win and acted like it. _They'd_ treated it more like an afterschool job, kind of annoying but not really important in the long run, because they were heroes and they'd win, wouldn't they?

They hadn't.

He kept running. He couldn't hear footsteps or pawpaddings or whatever but he could still feel Garurumon. He tried to tell himself that the hot breath pounding down his neck was only his imagination.

Something moved in front of him, too fast for him to react to, and he slammed into a solid wall of fur and muscle with that particular digital scent that he hadn't smelled in so long and didn't especially want to with that Dark Ring wrapped around Garurumon's neck.

Brilliant scarlet eyes stared down at him without a single shred of recognition or emotion. Yamato found he'd someone kept a grip on his Digivice and started to bring it up. Once these things had helped to get rid of the Gears Devimon controlled. They'd never been used against the Kaiser's works, but he thought he could try.

Garurumon growled, the kind of growl that made it plain any funny business would only end up with even more pain. Yamato froze.

 _I have to get that thing off of him, but I can't do anything if he just eats me now._ He had to find a way to do it without those sharp teeth chewing him to pieces. If he moved the wrong way…

"Bandage Slap!" The cry wasn't in any voice that he knew and he had no time to figure out where it came from before something wrapped around his waist and pulled him up out away from Garurumon.

He found himself perched on a tree branch, with what looked like a mummy next to him, reeling his bandages away from Yamato. The blond stared at him in disbelief and confusion.

"Who are you?" Yamato snapped. The other waved him to silence and Yamato glared harder. "Not that I don't appreciate the rescue, but who _are_ you?" He kept his voice down this time and the other didn't argue him talking.

"Mummymon. Now come on. We've got to meet Archnemon and your other friends, before your other friend _there_ finds us."

Unnumbered questions burned on Yamato's lips. There wasn't any chance to ask them, let alone get answers, before Mummymon grabbed him by the shoulders and leaped off into the enclosing shadows of the trees. They stayed that way, bouncing from tree to tree, sometimes not moving for long minutes until Mummymon deemed it safe. At least Yamato thought that was what he was doing. With the twists and turns that he took, he could've been following one of Taichi's old maps for all Yamato knew.

In due course they landed next to a large rock, sheltered by a thick wall of bushes. Yamato had no idea of how long they'd been traveling around or where they were, but Mummymon peered around carefully, then relaxed.

"All right, we'll be safe here, until we can get to the base," he said. "Everyone else should be here soon."

"Who is 'everyone else'?" Yamato wanted to know. He hadn't made up his mind if he trusted this guy or not, but he didn't have a lot of choices. That didn't mean he didn't want answers.

Mummymon tilted his head. "The others. Your friends. _My_ friends."

"They're not your friends or mine," a female voice interrupted, laced think with annoyance. "But we're all on the same side right now."

Yamato didn't read much fantasy, but he remembered having heard of a creature that was part spider and part human, sort of like a centaur, in some stories. He'd never met one before: until now. She skittered over to the two of them, and on her back there rode Taichi, at least until she stopped and tossed him quickly to the ground.

Taichi rolled, a faintly greenish cast to his skin as he fought to get back to his feet, and stared up at Yamato for a few moments before he leaned forward and deposited what Yamato guessed was his breakfast on the ground. He wasn't going to check for details.

"Good to see you're all right," Yamato told him, kicking some grass and dirt over the evidence. The less trail they left behind, the better. "Where's everyone else?"

The spider woman crossed her arms over her chest. "Coming. Unless the Kaiser's slaves got to them first."

"You're very comforting, aren't you?" Taichi groaned, getting himself to his feet at last. He turned to Yamato. "If horseback riding is anything like riding spider back, I'm _never_ going to do it."

Yamato patted him on the back and kept an eye out for the others. The new arrival was, of course, Archnemon, and from the way Mummymon looked at her – well, he'd never seen a Digimon in love before, but there was a first time for everything. Neither of them spoke to the two humans, murmuring to one another, as one by one, the others got there, each with their own Digimon escort. And some of those were very familiar indeed.

"All right, I'm not a dentist, but I'll check your teeth if I can get to a place with some clean water. In the meantime, I think you should try to find a breath freshener. _Please_!" Jou said as he and Ogremon entered the clearing. Ogremon nodded eagerly.

"I don't have as many ingredients as I'd like," Digitamamon said to Mimi, "but maybe we can try a few things with what we do have?"

Mimi grinned as cheerfully as she could. "Sounds like a good idea to me!"

Koushirou and Andromon were involved in some kind of conversation that Yamato couldn't even begin to follow. But it was Sora who made everyone's jaw drop when she entered with a Digimon none of the humans had met before.

"Everyone," she said as they all turned to look, "this is my new friend Rosemon."

Even with a flower for a head and not much of a face, Rosemon glowed gloriously beautiful. She nodded toward all of them. "I wish we could stand around getting to know one another, but time wastes, and there's too much to do. Archnemon, if you'd please."

Grumbling under her breath, Archnemon turned toward the large boulder in the clearing and struck it hard with one of her feet. Though it didn't seem like a very hard kick, the boulder opened up, revealing a long row of stairs before them.

"Let's go." Rosemon said, and led the way down.

"Just where _are_ we going?" Taichi wanted to know. Rosemon turned back to look at him, a harsh smile on her lips.

"To the last bastion of those who wish the Digimon Kaiser defeated and our world freed. And there are not very many of us, especially compared to his forces."

She turned and started down the stairs again, and with nothing left to do, they followed.

* * *

"They're gone." The Kaiser stared into the monitors, searching for any sign of his prey. He didn't like how they vanished. Something wasn't right, and he would find the answers before they tried anything. This was his world, his plaything, and no one took away his toys.

He'd won this war. He didn't care for a rematch and he wouldn't have one. Trying to start the game fresh?

They'd see why he'd won the first time.

 **The End**

 **Notes:** Someday I will write the next part of this. But that day is not today.


End file.
